The present invention relates to an electromagnetic switching device of the general type known from West German Patent Specification No. 3,417,891. In this prior art switching device, a contact slider is coupled to the armature of a solenoid actuator, which armature is reciprocable parallel to the slider, via pairs of levers that are pivotally mounted on journals provided on a housing base. Upon assembly, the solenoid actuator is first assembled alone, whereupon the levers are installed in fitting their two arms on the ends of the armature and contact slider. The thus assembled arrangement is then mounted in the housing base, and in this process, bores formed in the levers must simultaneously be fitted onto the journals.
Due to the fact that, prior to the final mounting in the housing member, the assembled arrangement mentioned above is not positioned in rigid relationship, the assembly step is a rather difficult operation. It is made still more difficult by the fact that the spacing between the journals does not exactly correspond to the spacing between the bores formed in the levers, because in addition to unavoidable machining tolerances there must be some bearing clearance between the ends of the armature and contact slider, on the one hand, and the ends of the levers, on the other hand, especially when the journals are inserted as separate elements in the housing base. A particular difficulty will arise when the solenoid actuator comprises a permanent magnet for achieving a polarized switching performance, which magnet will pull the armature at random to either one of its limit positions.
For all these reasons, the assembly of the known switching device is troublesome and time-consuming and in many cases cannot be effected without auxiliary means.